The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) returns to PokerStars on Sunday, September 10. The popular annual series runs for 25 days and ends on October 4. For nearly four weeks at the 2023 WCOOP, PokerStars will host 110 different events with $80 million in guaranteed prize pools.
Three Tiers of Buy-ins at 2023 WCOOP
When PokerStars runs a major multi-week tournament series, like WCOOP and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), their events have three tiers of buy-ins. In the case of WCOOP, they’ll run the same event but with three different buy-ins called low, medium, and high.
The tiered buy-ins attract players with varying skill levels and with various sized bankrolls. PokerStars wants as many players as possible to compete for a WCOOP title with three price points.
WCOOP buy-ins cost as low as $5.50 and reach as high as $25,000.
PokerStars tracks the progress of players through a WCOOP Leader Board, and they will award over $100,000 in prizes to the top player in each buy-in tier. There are three different Leader Boards for low, medium, and high events.
Sometimes players run bad, and a series like WCOOP allows a slumping player to step down a level while still competing for a coveted WCOOP title. At the same time, WCOOP’s three different buy-in tiers provides players with an opportunity to take a shot at a higher level. A low-stakes player can level up and take a chance with a medium buy-in WCOOP event, or a mid-stakes player can go swimming with the sharks in a WCOOP high event.
WCOOP Main Event Features 3 Events
The 2023 WCOOP Main Event begins on Sunday, October 1. And yes, there are three different tiers of Main Events with over $12.5 million in guaranteed prize pools.
The Main Event Low has a $109 buy-in and $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool, while the Main Event Medium has a $1,050 buy-in and a $4,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The Main Event High has a $10,3000 buy-in and an impressive $6,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Several noteworthy pros won the WCOOP Main Event High over the last two decades including JC ‘area23JC’ Tran (2006), Carter ‘ckingusc’ King (2008), Yevgeniy ‘JovialGent’ Timoshenko (2009), Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks (2010), Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz (2014), Jonas ‘llJaYJaYll’ Lauck (2016), and Steven ‘SvZff’ van Zadelhoff (2017).
A victory in the WCOOP Main Event High is a tremendous bankroll boost for an established player, which is what happened to American pro JC Tran back in 2006.
For an up-and-coming pro, winning the WCOOP Main Event High will help them make a name for themselves. That’s precisely what happened to German pro Fedor Holz when he shipped the WCOOP Main Event High in 2014 for a $1.3 million score.
12 World Championship Events at WCOOP
The 2023 WCOOP features a dozen World Championship Events including the $10,3000 buy-in Main Event High on Sunday, October 1.
The other 11 World Championship Events will test the top online players in different formats and games. Ten of those World Championships have buy-ins that exceed $1,050. Five of them exceed $5,200.
The World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha, which is also known as the WCOOP PLO Main Event, has a $10,300 buy-in and a $750,000 guaranteed prize pool. That star-studded PLO event is slated for Sunday, October 1.
The World Championship of Progressive Knockout (PKO) is a no-limit tournament with bounties that begins on Sunday, September 10. The $5,200 buy-in affair has a $1,000,000 guarantee.
The World Championship of 6-Max NLHE has a $5,200 buy-in and $750,000 guarantee, which begins on Sunday, September 17.
The World Championship of Heads-Up NLHE also has a $5,200 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool worth $250,000. The popular heads-up event begins on Tuesday, September 19.
Other World Championship events at the 2023 WCOOP include HORSE, 8-Game Mixed, Razz, PLO8, 2-7 Triple Draw, and NL 2-7 Single Draw.
There’s also a special ladies only WCOOP NLHE event on Saturday, September 30. The Women’s World Championship has a $215 buy-in and $35,000 guaranteed prize pool.
WCOOP Satellites Running for Under $1!
Players have a chance to qualify for the WCOOP through satellites on PokerStars. Satellites cost as little as $0.55. There’s also Special Spin&Go satellites that cost as little as $0.75. PokerStars offers players Fast Track satellites to all three of the Main Events which start as low as $2.20.
There are multiple ways to win WCOOP tournament tickets. PokerStars made over $285,000 in tournament tickets available through Power Pass step tournaments. Players can win special ticket bundles called the Bronze Power Pass, Silver Power Pass, and Gold Power Pass.
Since the inception of the WCOOP in 2002, there have been a total of 2,105 WCOOP tournaments played on PokerStars. No less than 7.8 million entrants took a shot at a WCOOP title over the last 20 years. The total prize pool in the WCOOP topped $1.2 billion with over $184.4 million doled out to the first-place champions.
At the 2022 WCOOP, PokerStars hosted a total of 367 tournaments with over 1.18 million entrants. Over $108.5 million was at stake in last year’s WCOOP, and PokerStars awarded over $17 million to first-place finishers.
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